Japan’s financial firms move ahead with blockchain bond and payment projects
Japan's institutional embrace of blockchain technology is accelerating on multiple fronts, with a flurry of developments in the first week of May signaling that the country's financial establishment is moving to bring digital asset infrastructure into mainstream markets.
Government bonds go on-chain
Citing Nikkei, Nada News reported on May 7 that a group of major Japanese banks and brokerages plans to tokenize Japanese government bonds by the end of 2026. The project would issue JGBs as security tokens on a blockchain and use stablecoins for settlement, potentially allowing 24-hour trading and same-day settlement.
The project is expected to focus first on the repo market, where financial institutions use government bonds as collateral for short-term lending. Japan represents roughly 10% of the global repo market.
Progmat, a digital asset infrastructure company, will coordinate the industry group behind the project. Participants include Japan’s three megabanks (Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Mizuho Bank), Daiwa Securities, SBI Securities, Tokio Marine Holdings, BlackRock Japan and State Street Trust & Banking. The group plans to publish a report on legal and tax issues by October.
SBI moves to acquire bitbank
Separately, financial conglomerate SBI Holdings said on May 1 that it submitted a letter of intent to acquire a controlling stake in bitbank, one of Japan’s largest crypto exchanges, and make it a consolidated subsidiary. The announcement followed SBI’s merger of BitPoint Japan into SBI VC Trade in April.
SBI said the proposed acquisition comes as Japan considers bringing digital assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. On April 10, the cabinet approved an amendment bill that would for the first time regulate crypto assets as financial products, including a ban on insider trading based on undisclosed information.
In payments, Aptos signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NETSTARS, the Tokyo-based operator of the StarPay cashless payment platform. Aptos will participate as a blockchain partner in NETSTARS’ StarPay-X project, which aims to add stablecoin and other Web3 payment options to existing point-of-sale infrastructure.
